Food and Dining Dispatches

A local seafood tasting dinner will be held Friday to benefit the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

“Fish It Forward: A Gastronomical Tour of Gulf of Maine Seafood” will be held at Tao, 22 Pleasant St. The six-course dinner will feature seafood harvested from the Gulf of Maine, including oysters, a smoked mackerel salad, pan-seared scallops, green curry Bangs Island mussels and butter-poached lobster tail.

There will be two seatings, one at 5:30 p.m. and one at 8 p.m., and space is limited to 40 diners per seating. The cost is $80 per person, or $120 with wine pairings. Reservations must be made before Friday.

It’s time for Restaurant Week again, only this time it’s restaurants in Portsmouth, N.H., and the seacoast area that are hosting.

Dining along the Maine-New Hampshire border is a two-way proposition. Mainers often cross the bridge to check out what’s happening in Portsmouth, and New Hampshire residents venture north to see what Maine restaurants have to offer.

This year, there are four Maine restaurants participating in Portsmouth’s Nov. 8-17 Restaurant Week: Anneke Jans, Black Birch and Tulsi in Kittery and the Stage Neck Inn in York.

In all, 49 restaurants in the seacoast area have signed on to participate. They’ll be offering three-course lunches for $16.95 and three-course dinners for $29.95. To see a full list of restaurants and what they’ll have on their menus, go to restaurantweekportsmouth.com.

LEWISTON

Gritty’s/Fish Bones meal to benefit Heart Association

Gritty’s and Fish Bones American Grill will host a tasting for the American Heart Association at 6 p.m. Nov. 15.

The event will feature a five-course meal paired with Gritty’s ales. Courses will include a barley-crusted fish taco, stuffed pork medallions and marinated Angus sirloin.

Petite Jacqueline will hold a celebration in honor of Beaujolais Nouveau, the traditional French celebration of the Beaujolais villages, on Nov. 15 at the 190 State St. restaurant.

The evening will feature a four-course tasting menu with wine pairings, and each table will receive a complimentary bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau. The restaurant will also be offering specialty cocktails as well as its full beer and wine menus. The regular food menu will not be available, so the chef can concentrate on the tasting menu.

The dinner costs $55 per person, and reservations are strongly recommended. For more information, call 553-7044 or email [email protected]

Rosemont Market events spotlight pies and wines

Rosemont Markets will be holding a couple of special events this weekend.

At 4 p.m. Friday at the market at 580 Brighton Ave., Ned Swain of Devenish Wines will host a free wine tasting with Warren Fraser, an importer of small, family-run wineries in Italy and France. According to Swain, Fraser first worked for Mario Batali, then T. Edward wines, building their Italian portfolio, before striking out on his own.

On Saturday at the Brighton Avenue store and Rosemont Yarmouth, located at 96 Main St., there will be free pie tastings. Pies to be sampled include pumpkin, bourbon pecan, apple and blueberry.

Grace, Foreside Tavern host benefit for Sandy victims

The restaurant Grace is having a benefit for victims of Superstorm Sandy during dinner service on Thursday.

For every person who has dinner at the restaurant that night, Grace will donate $5 to the Red Cross. The Foreside Tavern in Falmouth, also owned by the owners of Grace, will be donating $1 for every person who has dinner there the same night.

The restaurant will also be collecting coats and blankets that will be going to the Rockaway peninsula on Long Island, where aid has been slow to reach.

Wine expert Swain to pour on a Thanksgiving theme

Ned Swain of Devenish Wines will be doing a Thanksgiving-themed wine tasting at Aurora Provisions from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Swain said he will be showcasing his picks for Thanksgiving, including “some crazy new wines,” such as Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley and an Illahe Oregon Pinot Noir that is a product of all-natural wine making.

Aurora Provisions is located at 64 Pine St.

Swain will also be pouring a few natural wines, some of them rare, at the Rosemont Market on Munjoy Hill, 88 Congress St., from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Oakhurst lauches egg nog effort for Salvatation Army

Oakhurst Dairy is kicking off its 13th annual egg nog fundraiser for the Salvation Army with something a little different: Chocolate nog.

The new product is a blend of the company’s egg nog and its super premium chocolate milk. Oakhurst says it’s the first chocolate nog in New England.

Every year, Oakhurst donates 5 cents for every container of egg nog sold to the Salvation Army. To date, the annual fundraiser has raised more than $200,000.

Oakhurst will be offering samples of chocolate nog at a number of local holiday events, including the Portland tree lighting ceremony on Nov. 23 in Monument Square.

Special guest in the house for Bar Lola wine dinner

Felipe Gonzalez-Gordon Terry, president of Gonzalez Byass USA, will be the guest at a Tuesday wine dinner at Bar Lola, 100 Congress St.

The Gonzalez Byass family has made sherry in Jerez, Spain, since 1835. Their Tio Pepe Fino Sherry is the best-selling sherry in the world, and will be served at the dinner. The family also owns several wineries.

The dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. and costs $75 per person, which includes the multi-course meal, wine pairings, tax and gratuity.

Reservations available for Figa Champagne dinner

Figa is taking reservations for a Champagne dinner at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 4. The four-course dinner will cost $75 per person. Call 518-9400 for reservations.

Native Mainer to pour his California wines Nov. 14

Peter Merriam, owner of Merriam Vineyards in California, will be serving some of his wines at a five-course dinner at The Salt Exchange on Nov. 14.

The dinner will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. at 245 Commercial St. and costs $78 per person, which includes tax and gratuity.

Merriam is a native Mainer. He and his wife, Diana, also a New Englander, named their vineyard on the edge of the Russian River Valley Windacre, after their 1919 Maine summer cottage. To read a Press Herald profile of the family and how they got into the wine-making business, go to bit.ly/Ud9Fmo.

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